I have a bad habit of watching over my Facebook page while I do my homework. For once it actually proved to be useful in an assignment; a fact that completely shocks me. I found the picture above when a Facebook friend of mine posted it to their wall and thought it might be a cute little add-in for this post. It includes “I am the 99%” slogan that is directly associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Anyway, turn your attention away from the movie icon for just a few minutes and focus on the matter at hand. After watching the Democracy Now video on the worldwide spread of the “Occupy” movement, it has helped me to better realize just how broad the spectrum of these protests is. Now people on nearly every continent has a protest going on over something that has had a huge impact on the way each region of the world lives. It brings into perspective the extent to which conditions have gotten bad, not only in America, but worldwide. This whole movement is basically just another Civil Rights movement, only this time focusing on getting ALL people of the world what they deserve.
In the previous response I pointed out my doubt that this movement would really change corporate officials’ views on whether or not things need to change. I still hold this belief, but it’s not nearly as strong. The fact that this movement has become so widespread so quickly has made me begin to question my judgment of what the people are really capable of. I look at it this way; if the government sees a few small protests in cities across our country, they aren’t going to think much of it. However, if citizens of other countries are beginning to step up and fight for what they believe in, then the corporate pigs need to start shaking in their expensive little Armani suits.
While watching the Democracy Now video, I noticed Barack Obama did say something relating this movement to the civil rights movement. It’s nice to know that the president sees the protests and supports them. If this really is the case, then why don’t we see much of an improvement and a will to change from our government (i.e. congress)? To be quite honest, I think they’re just as bad as Wall Street bankers; after all, politicians have always been considered crooks.
I feel like I live in a cave sometimes. I don’t watch T.V. except for at the dinner table, therefore I don’t ever watch the evening news because we have dinner really late. I live on my laptop and Facebook and rarely tread outside that site and a few others. I may sometimes catch a small glimpse of NBC Nightly News, but that’s about it. So, I don’t know exactly how much light the news channels shed on this situation. I do know that LEX 18 will post something on Facebook about the protests once in a blue moon, but it isn’t much. However, in my research, I have found that if you type in “Occupy Wall Street” in Google, you get thousands of results; these range anywhere from what the movement is about to where the next protests are gonna be. One of the sites I use often is Yahoo and I do recall seeing a few articles on the homepage about this movement; but not very many. I also don’t read the magazines or newspapers, so I haven’t seen any of this there either.
